Blogging the Latino Workforce

Monthly Archives: October 2011

Check out this great report by Complete College America which provides gobs of data and clever graphics to illustrate the new reality for college students. Much of the data is relevant to Latino college students, particularly as it relates to getting them through the graduation pipeline. While more Latino students are certainly getting to college – data shows they’re still spending too much time there, and even worse, not getting out. As the report notes, “Staying in school longer doesn’t signficantly increase students’ chances of graduating.”

Many Hispanic Serving Institutions struggle to get the necessary funding to support the growing Latino college student population. Dr. Antonio Flores, president and chief executive officer of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), outlines the gap and makes the case for supporting HSIs:

Regrettably, HSIs remain at the bottom with respect to federal funding. They receive, on average, a mere 66 cents for every federal dollar going to all institutions annually per student (HACU analysis of IPEDS 2007-08 data). Unless this wide gap is closed expeditiously, HSIs will not have the necessary resources to increase their capacity to serve their fast-growing learning communities.

This is a handy interactive map via NPR which illustrates where Latino growth is most prevalent. Where is Latino population growth the highest? The South: Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky.

It’s not shocking to realize that most human resource functions these days “Google” a job applicant’s name as part of their preliminary background research. What’s interesting is what decisions organizations are making based on the information they find.

According to Forbes, most candidates are eliminated due to lying about their qualifications. My two cents – seems this might open up an organization to discriminatory employment practice claims by some applicants… but I’m not a lawyer. : )

During the course of study last year, I had an interesting conversation with a client regarding race. This individual considered himself Latino; however, had the outward features of an African American man. We discussed his occasional “demographic challenge” of whether he considered himself an African American or some other race given his ancestry. This is a growing trend within most organizations that are attempting to make headway in understanding the diversity realm.

Latino Decisions has shared some interesting data which I think will continue to raise even more questions for organizations and individuals regarding Latinos in the context of race and ethnicity. In this survey, more Latinos consider themselves racially “white.” It really throws a wrench into what we define as racially “diverse.”

Although it is far too early to draw any conclusions from the apparent rise in white identification among Latinos in the most recent Census, this is an issue that will surely generate wider discussion and speculation as it did following the release of the 2000 numbers. For example, some contend that the high numbers of Latinos who identify as white racially makes a majority-minority population in the U.S. a distant reality. Furthermore, some demographers have suggested that the broadened measure of white in the 2010 Census could lead to a major shift in our understanding of race in the United States. While the implications of this measurement change are not yet understood, it is clear that how Latinos think about their identities will influence the way in which the nation defines race and ethnicity in the future.